Dutch bank ABN Amro fined $574m in terrorism and money laundering purge

A Dutch bank was fined $574 million under new laws to tackle terrorism financing and money laundering.

Prosecutors accused the state-owned ABN Amro of "serious shortcomings" in tackling illegal activity.

The penalty was made up of a €300m ($360.9m) fine and €180m paid to cover “unlawfully obtained gains”, prosecutors said.

"The fine reflects that as a result of the serious shortcomings, certain clients that engaged in criminal activities were able to abuse bank accounts and other services of ABN Amro for a longer period of time,” the Dutch Public Prosecution Service said.

Prosecutors said on Monday that while the breaches were attributed to the bank, their investigation identified three former members of its board who “presumably are effectively responsible” for the violations.

It did not identify the trio and said investigations were continuing into whether there was sufficient evidence to prosecute.

However, in Denmark, Danske Bank said its chief executive Chris Vogelzang resigned after being named as one of the suspects.

Gerrit Zalm, a former Dutch finance minister and ex-ABN Amro board member, also resigned from Danske Bank's board.

Mr Vogelzang said he was surprised by the Dutch probe.

“I left ABN Amro more than four years ago and am comfortable with the fact that I managed my management responsibilities with integrity and dedication,” he said.

“My status as a suspect does not imply that I will be charged.”

ABN Amro said it “deeply regrets the situation and recognises the seriousness of the matter, and that it has fallen short in the fulfilment of its role as gatekeeper aimed at combatting money laundering.”

“This is unacceptable and we take full responsibility for this,” the bank's chief executive Robert Swaak said.

ABN Amro is not the first bank to be fined under the law which was introduced to clamp down on money laundering and financing terrorism.

In 2018, ING agreed to pay $897m to settle a money laundering case with Dutch prosecutors.

Britain is tightening measures to tackle money laundering and last month the UK's Financial Services Authority brought criminal charges against NatWest bank, one of the world's oldest institutions, for allegedly violating money laundering laws over a five-year period.

The FCA said NatWest allowed £264m worth of suspicious cash deposits to be lodged in a customer's account without raising any fraud alerts.

It was the first time the FCA launched a criminal prosecution under the money laundering regulations and the first time a bank was prosecuted under the rules.